Ronnie Dunn and Sara Evans will headline the Academy of Country Music Concerts at Fremont Street Experience this year in Las Vegas.

The announcement was made Tuesday in an ACM news release. The concerts kick off the ACM Awards party April 1-2. They serve as an appetizer for the awards, held April 3 at the MGM Grand.

Dunn is launching a solo career after 20 years as half the iconic duo Brooks & Dunn. His first single since the breakup, "Bleed Red," is on the radio and a self-produced album is expected later this year. Evans will release her sixth album, Stronger, on March 8.

Click to see a gallery of photos from Miranda Lambert and Ronnie Dunn's announcement of the ACM Awards nominees at the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville (this image: Larry McCormack/The Tennessean).

Tuesday morning, she received a field-leading seven nominations for the 46th annual ACM Awards show, including the category for entertainer of the year.

Later this month, she’ll head west to the Grammy Awards, where her music is nominated for five trophies. Late last year, she won four CMA awards. And in the spring, she’ll marry country singer Blake Shelton.

“I really haven’t had time to process this,” said Lambert, talking about her latest nominations. She joined Ronnie Dunn in reading the ACM list at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum’s Ford Theater. The announcement was aired live on CBS’ The Early Show. “I know when I first started, I wanted to be nominated for entertainer of the year, and here I am.”

Her fellow entertainer nominees are Taylor Swift, Keith Urban, Brad Paisley, Jason Aldean and Toby Keith. She’s also nominated in the vocalist, single, song, video (twice) and vocal event categories at the ACM Awards, which will air live on CBS from Las Vegas on Sunday, April 3 at 7 p.m. Central.

“It’s one of those songs that the first time you hear it, it really touches you,” Lambert said. “It makes you want to go back home, find your roots and your foundation.”

Reba McEntire and Lambert’s fiance Shelton will co-host this year’s ACM show, set to take place Sunday, April 3 at Las Vegas’ MGM Grand Garden Arena.

Kenny Chesney and Zac Brown Band, two acts that will co-headline numerous stadium concerts this summer, were nominated for five ACM awards apiece.

The Band Perry and Taylor Swift each garnered four nominations, and Swift notched her second ACM top entertainer nod. Swift, who was the only recording artist in 2010 to sell a million copies of an album in its first week of issue, is also up for trophies in the album and female vocalist categories.

The biggest nominations surprise was one of exclusion: Even with a new album that has sold more than 500,000 copies in the past two and a half months, Rascal Flatts did not receive a nomination for vocal group of the year. Instead, the vocal group category finds Lady Antebellum competing with Little Big Town, the Randy Rogers Band, The Band Perry and Zac Brown Band.

Lambert and Dunn will announce this year's nominees at a 7:30 a.m. press conference. Check back here at Tennessean.com/music for coverage of the announcements.

This year's ACM show will be held April 3 at Las Vegas' MGM Grand Garden Arena. The three-hour show, which is produced by dick clark productions, will be aired live on CBS that evening at 7 p.m. Central.

More than 800 artists and industry professionals contributed to the event, which was created by Country Music Hall of Famer Owen and has generated more than $385 million for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital since 1989.

“It’s been incredible to see country radio and the country music industry embrace this program the way it has,” Owen said in a statement.

Performers toured the hospital, met with patients and worked to raise awareness for St. Jude, and a Sunday night dinner featured performances by country music songwriters.

Watch a video message about St. Jude from Ronnie Dunn above. For more information, visit www.countrycares.org.

Click to see a gallery of photos from Nov. 9's BMI Country Awards (this image of Taylor Swift: Jae S. Lee/The Tennessean).

Two pivotal figures in Nashville music — one a 74-year-old songwriter and production mastermind, the other a 20-year-old experiencing unprecedented songwriting success — won major prizes at Tuesday evening’s 2010 BMI Country Music Awards.

Country Music Hall of Famer Billy Sherrill and singer-songwriter Taylor Swift are the figures in question, with Sherrill winning a BMI Icon Award for career achievement and Swift becoming the first-ever writer to win three consecutive BMI country song of the year awards, and the youngest person to ever win the BMI country songwriter of the year prize (next in that line: Bill Anderson, who was 23 when he won in 1960, and Johnny Cash, who was 24 in 1956).

The private, black tie event was held at BMI’s Music Row offices and hosted by BMI president and CEO Del Bryant and Nashville writer/publisher VP Jody Williams.

Swift’s self-recorded “Fifteen,” “White Horse” and “You Belong With Me” were among BMI’s most-recorded songs of the past year, as was her co-written hit for Kellie Pickler, “Best Days of Your Life.”

“You Belong With Me,” written by Swift and Liz Rose, was named BMI’s country song of the year. Swift’s “Love Story” won in 2009, and her “Teardrops On My Guitar” (co-written with Rose) was BMI’s top country song in 2008.

“Taylor writes about her own experiences, and sings about what she’s going through,” said Josh Turner, whose “Why Don’t We Just Dance” is country radio’s most-played single of 2010. “That’s something a lot of writers forget to do, for some reason.”Continue reading →

Click to see a gallery of photos from Brooks & Dunn's last concert together in Nashville (this photo: Dipti Vaidya/The Tennessean).

Handshakes and confetti, not hugs and tears.

Brooks & Dunn ended a 19-year run Thursday night with a Bridgestone Arena concert that benefited the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. And while a 15-minute pre-show video intimated that emotions would run high, the duo’s set traded on hit songs rather than histrionics.

“This is not a funeral,” Kix Brooks told the audience. “We did show up to party.”

Brooks and partner (well, ex-partner, as of this writing) Ronnie Dunn’s two-hour party was both professional and well-rehearsed.

American music’s most successful arranged marriage has come to an end.

Kix Brooks and Ronnie Dunn were brought together by record executive Tim DuBois. They had tried and failed at the solo route, and though sharing the spotlight didn’t sound particularly appealing to them, neither did it sound as bad as, say, taking day jobs.

Initial album Brand New Man was a blockbuster from the beginning, and Brooks and Dunn got to know one another at the same time they were experiencing breakout sales in record stores and on tour.

The men’s commercial success went on to surpass Simon & Garfunkel, the Everly Brothers and all other duos, as fans enjoyed the songs, the performances and the onstage dichotomy between the serious-minded Dunn and the demonstrative Brooks. The shows were entertaining, with explosions, video screens and a state fair atmosphere away from the main stage. The last of those shows takes place this evening at Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena, as Brooks & Dunn are finishing up after 19 years together. Both members are likely to move forward as solo artists, but their work together is complete.

Click the image above to get a view into their studio collaborations, from over here at the end of the road.

“Welcome to the 2010 CMT Music Awards,” hollered Rock, opening an evening of non-traditional entertainment on the fan-voted awards show.

The awards portion of the evening featured no dominant force. Carrie Underwood was the only double-winner, and she won the night’s biggest prize of video of the year, for “Cowboy Casanova” as well as a CMT Performance of the Year trophy for the version of “Temporary Home” that she performed on CMT’s “Invitation Only” show. The other seven awards, all fan-voted, were given out to eight different winners (the “collaborative video” prize was shared between Blake Shelton and Trace Adkins for their “Hillbilly Bone” video).Continue reading →

The Academy of Country Music announced that a $1 million donation to the ACM’s charitable arm, Lifting Lives, has been made on behalf of the artists who performed in the tribute ACM Presents: Brooks & Dunn the Last Rodeo. Ticket proceeds from the taping, which took place the night after this year’s ACM Awards in Las Vegas, went to Lifting Lives, where they are being put to use for Middle Tennessee flood relief.